Tracy Beckerman is Lost in Suburbia and trying to hold onto just a little bit of her former, COOL, pre-mom self!

2 Kids – 1 Kid = Less Work?

Comment

About this blog

Nationally syndicated columnist and author Tracy Beckerman is \x34Lost in Suburbia\x34 ­ managing the chaos with a healthy dose of humor. Her next book, a \x34momoir,\x34 will be published in spring 2013. She contributes to many online mom sites,
...

Nationally syndicated columnist and author Tracy Beckerman is \x34Lost in Suburbia\x34 ­ managing the chaos with a healthy dose of humor. Her next book, a \x34momoir,\x34 will be published in spring 2013. She contributes to many online mom sites, including www.todaysmama.com, www.rolemommy.com and www.newjerseymomsblog.com and is an official blogger for Lifetime Television's hit show, \x34The Balancing Act.\x34 She also does stand-up comedy and has appeared at venues including The Comic Strip Live in NYC and The Erma Bombeck Workshop in Dayton, Ohio. Before she became a columnist, Beckerman was a writer and producer in the television industry for 10 years, managing the advertising & promotion department at WCBS-TV New York. Tracy is married to a very understanding guy. They have two children and live in New Jersey where she writes, does battle with woodchucks and avoids, at all costs, driving a minivan.

Somehow I thought things would be easier once my son left for college.

It was a simple mathematical equation:

2 kids – 1 kid = less work.

Of course, when I say “less work,” I was thinking specifically about the amount of driving, cooking and laundry I would have to do.

What I failed to take into account, however, was the Law of Diminishing Children. This is one of the lesser known laws of physics in the universe. It’s not that surprising that I would forget this law since I all but failed science in High School. For those of you who are also scientifically-challenged like me and would prefer to spend your mental energy contemplating all the shoe choices in the world, the Law of Diminishing Children states that when one of your kids leaves for college, the universe will provide some form of chaos to fill the hole.

This is exactly what happened at our house.

I enjoyed approximately 5 minutes, 23 seconds of sadness after dropping off my son at school, before all hell broke loose.

The first thing I noticed was the puddle of water on the floor around the dishwasher.

“I think the dishwasher is broken,” I said to my husband.

“Really? What gave it away?” he wondered as we watched the river of water flow from the dishwasher to our suitcases at the kitchen door. I sighed and went to grab some towels to mop up the mess. But when I got down to the basement, I noticed a strong and distinctly soapy smell. I opened the washing machine and found the laundry I had done before I left floating in a pool of bubbly water.

My husband came downstairs and peered in the washing machine.

“I think the washing machine is broken,” I said to him.

“Really? What gave it away?” he wondered, as he hit the start button on the washing machine and nothing happened.

Throwing up my arms in defeat, I went to pick up the dog from the boarders.

After he got in the house, the dog sat down, and started scratching furiously at his ear. I lifted up his ear and saw that he had a ginormous ear infection going on.

I looked at my husband. ”I think the dog is broken,” I said to him.

“Look on the bright side,” he said. “Now that our son is in college, at least you have less laundry to do.”